JavaScript Libraries Index

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reedlauber

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Aug 2, 2012, 3:48:12 PM8/2/12
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JavaScript Libraries Index. I think there should be one. Does anyone know if such a thing already exists? Quick Googling didn't turn up too much. Occasionally, I see lists that are more like web developer dashboards, but they aren't very comprehensive.

I find it woefully inefficient when you need a little shim to, say, handle History or something; or you need a great charting/graphics library, but haven't been paying as much attention to that space; and you not only have to find said library, but need to navigate whether it's a good one, and determine if there's some other obvious leader that you're missing.

We live in the glorious future and this seems like an easy problem to address.

So, what do y'all think about a little JS Lib index site with a list of libraries big and small, categorized (tagged) by their purpose and by other base libraries they've been built on? It would be somewhat similar to microjs.com, but not limited to "micro" and would include ratings/votes to help identify the obvious leaders.

Would you find such a thing useful? If I built it, would you help populate it? Or does it already exist, in which case, awesome!

Thanks,
Reed

Gabriel Farrell

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Aug 2, 2012, 3:54:19 PM8/2/12
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Some of my best finds come from searching on GitHub and selecting
language=JavaScript. The problem there is that some libraries only
support Node.js or the browser when you're looking for the other one.
For Node, there is of course the registry at npmjs.org. I've heard of
similar efforts in RequireJS or AMD land, but don't remember any
links.

reedlauber

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Aug 2, 2012, 4:04:51 PM8/2/12
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Ah, good point. npm and other package managers are definitely good for finding what you need. It doesn't really exist yet for browser-oriented JS. There was an interesting blog post I saw in JavaScript Weekly last week about JavaScript "components" that was suggesting that browser-based libraries work similarly to npm or rubygems or whatever. 

I think that idea makes sense, and implicit in making a JS "components" ecosystem would be a searchable service to support it. But it doesn't exist yet ... :/


On Thursday, August 2, 2012 12:54:19 PM UTC-7, Gabriel Farrell wrote:
Some of my best finds come from searching on GitHub and selecting
language=JavaScript. The problem there is that some libraries only
support Node.js or the browser when you're looking for the other one.
For Node, there is of course the registry at npmjs.org. I've heard of
similar efforts in RequireJS or AMD land, but don't remember any
links.

Mat Schaffer

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Aug 2, 2012, 5:20:41 PM8/2/12
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Sounds a little like ruby-toolbox.com

I wonder if they'd be interested in generalizing it...

-Mat

Justin Walgran

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Aug 2, 2012, 6:03:50 PM8/2/12
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This library of jQuery plugins is pretty great.

http://jquer.in/

The highlight, for me, is the prominence of demo page links. Maybe the maintainer would be into setting up a sister site.

Justin

I don't know if the maintainers would be open to a more general

Jordan Santell

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Aug 2, 2012, 6:10:39 PM8/2/12
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Kinda reminded me of CDNJS -- adding new libraries, curated, via GitHub, although is just a listing and hosting essentially, which is similar in that regard to npm, minus the including aspect (which Require/AMD handle)
--
Jordan Santell
Developer/Producer

Brian Hassinger

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Aug 2, 2012, 7:10:21 PM8/2/12
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Maybe this is your jam?

Finding gold is always tough

reedlauber

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Aug 3, 2012, 2:10:44 PM8/3/12
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These are all really interesting. Thanks everyone.

Where should I go from here? It seems like there's no single resource to do what I'm suggesting. All these (very cool) tools are either library/platform specific, or not really very searchable, etc. I still think a complete JS lib index and marketplace that's filterable and has ratings or popularity counts would be really useful.

I certainly don't want to reinvent the wheel (actually I love reinventing wheels). If there's a project worth supporting and promoting, that would be great, but so far I'm not seeing it. The challenge with creating something like this, though, is that it would only be as good as the number of people who use it, so promotion would be crucial. And I just don't draw that kind of water.
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